The Ministry Of Time's TV Adaptation Confirms Major Book Change With New Casting
El is a Junior TV Features Editor for ScreenRant, with previous experience as The Mary Sue's UK and Weekend Editor. She holds a Bachelor's in International Media and Entertainment Management, as well as an MA and Ph.D. in Creative Writing. There is little she loves more than discussing her favorite TV shows with fellow fans. One day, she hopes to publish an original fantasy novel.
The BBC and A24's upcoming adaptation of Kaliane Bradley's bestselling sci-fi thriller, The Ministry of Time, will include a major change from the book. Longlisted for the 2025 Women's Fiction Prize and a finalist for the Hugo Awards, Bradley's novel is a funny, moving, thrilling mix of time travel, romance, political conspiracies, and identity. Set in the not-too-distant future, the book follows an unnamed civil servant narrator as she becomes a "bridge" for the titular Ministry of Time, responsible for a 19th-century "expat" (real-life Victorian Arctic explorer Commander Graham Gore, saved from certain death) transported into 21st-century London.
Stuck together in close quarters, their relationship morphs from a professional, educational dynamic into a forbidden romance. Happily-ever-afters aren't easy when time travel is involved, though, and the pair soon find themselves in hot water as they get closer to the truth of the government's groundbreaking, top-secret temporal technology. The book will be adapted into a six-episode series, with Normal People's Alice Birch penning the script. Most of the cast has been announced, with Aoife Hinds (Dune: Prophecy, These Sacred Vows) and Billy Howle (Under the Banner of Heaven, The Perfect Couple) set to play the story's star-crossed leads.
The Ministry of Time isn't an easy book to adapt. While the story's sci-fi and romance elements will play out well on screen, the protagonist's first-person narration is introspective and deeply personal, offering a more intimate look at her growing feelings for Graham Gore and experiences as a British-Cambodian woman living in modern Britain, inspired by Bradley's own life and her family's history. How Birch's script infuses those elements remains to be seen, though one major change has already been revealed.
The Ministry Of Time's Narrator Is Getting A Name For The First Time
Having an unnamed narrator is an unusual but effective choice. In an interview with Elle, Bradley shared that The Ministry of Time's first draft, which began as weekly chapters shared online with a community of polar exploration enthusiasts, was originally written in the rare second person. This means the narrator is addressing the reader using the pronouns "you" and "your," making them part of the story. The unnamed, first-person narrator is a natural, more accessible evolution of that; the reader stays close — closer than if the narrator had a different name — while highlighting the protagonist's personal thoughts and feelings.
This is a pure literary device, however, and impossible to replicate in a TV show. It would be strange if no one ever addressed the character by name, neither her colleagues nor Graham or the other expats trying to come to terms with modern technology, slang, and social expectations. As such, it's been revealed that Aoife Hinds' character will be called Sophy (via RadioTimes). Will the show use the name sparingly? Or will it become an integral part of the shared intimacy between her and Graham, a new step in their growing relationship?
The Ministry Of Time Has An Eerie Casting Connection To Real Life
What inspired Bradley to write an entire book imagining Graham Gore's anachronistic life in the 21st century? The answer, of course, is a TV show.
During the pandemic, Bradley watched the first season of AMC's anthology series, The Terror, based on Dan Simmons' 2007 novel of the same name. It's a supernatural horror twist on one of history's most dangerous and disastrous expeditions; Graham Gore was one of the 129 poor souls who mysteriously lost their lives during the journey. He was a minor character in the series (played by Tom Weston-Jones), prompting Bradley to search for more information about the naval officer. All that really remains today is a grainy daguerreotype.
While Billy Howle has been cast as Bradley's fictionalized version of Gore in The Ministry of Time, the series still has a surprising connection to The Terror. Aoife Hinds' real-life parents, Ciarán Hinds and Hélène Patarot, will play Sophy's fictional parents, Peter and Channary. In The Terror, Ciarán Hinds played John Franklin, the very man the tragic expedition was named after and Gore's commanding officer. Viewers will recognize the Oscar nominee from other genre hits like Game of Thrones and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.
Joining Aoife and Ciarán Hinds, Howle, and Patarot are Hong Chau as Adela, Sophy's eventual government handler; Adeel Akhtar as Quentin, Sophy's first handler; Emily Fairn as Margaret Kemble, one of Gore's fellow expats, rescued from plague-riddled London; Tamara Lawrence as Simellia, another bridge; Josh Finan as Captain Arthur Reginald-Smyth, World War I expat; Aisling Loftus as Anne Spencer, an expat from 18th-century France; Tawfeek Barhom as the mysterious Brigadier; and Nahuel Pérez Biscayart as Salese, the Brigadier's closest associate.
With such a great cast, a talented writer, a unique premise, and the combined power of the BBC and A24, The Ministry of Time has everything it needs to become an incredible sci-fi hit.
The Ministry of Time will be released on BBC One and BBC iPlayer in the UK and Paramount+ in the US and other select territories.
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.